I recently sat down with @umichsph professor @MelissaSCreary following her excellent talk "Bounded Justice: A Critical Appraisal of DEI." Below, I share a few highlights from her presentation and our conversation, which you can also find at the end of this thread! Enjoy! 1/ Professor Creary's talk builds upon her MUST-READ paper: "Bounded Justice and the Limits of Health Equity." She argues that it is impossible to attend to equity when underlying infrastructures have been eroded by racism and other forms of oppression. cambridge.org/core/journals/…

(THREAD): Yesterday, I had the honor to appear as a guest on @CNN Newsroom with @brikeilarcnn. In this thread, I share a few reflections on my experience. 1/ On Wednesday, I received an invitation from @CNN to talk "COVID headlines, including how people of color have been affected as well as vaccinations," if I thought this was a "possibility." I haven't done many TV interviews, and it was CNN, so this was a no brainer.

(THREAD) I recently re-read MLK Jr.'s "The Role of the Behavioral Scientist in the Civil Rights Movement," one of my favorite speeches. Hoping to share a few highlight quotes & reactions over the next few days. Read & share the speech when you can! apa.org/monitor/featur… 1/ "... social scientists, unlike some of their colleagues in the physical sciences, have been spared the grim feelings of guilt that attended the invention of nuclear weapons of destruction. Social scientists ... are fortunate to be able to extirpate evil, not to invent it."

(THREAD) In high school or college, a friend gifted me a copy of BLACK RAGE - a reflection of two Black psychiatrists (Grier & Cobbs) who "tell it as it is" and "reveal the full dimensions of the inner conflicts and the desperation of the Black man's life in America." 1/ Unfortunately, I never read more than a few pages. And I'm not sure why he gave it to me - maybe he knew something I didn't or couldn't fully appreciate at the time. Or maybe he had heard of the novelist, playwright, essayist, poet, and activist James Baldwin.

(THREAD) Solutions to address COVID-19 racial disparities first require an understanding of contributing factors. In this thread, I briefly summarize recent explanations for racial gaps in C-19 mortality. I hope you'll share with those who may be interested. 1/ CHRONIC/UNDERLYING HEALTH CONDITIONS - Probably the most cited explanation. Goes something like this: African Americans are more likely to have heart/lung disease, asthma, diabetes, obesity, cancer, etc., which increases vulnerability to serious illness and death from C-19.